The Thinking Monster: Combat Tactics for Spell-Users

This article offers Dungeon Masters tactical tips for effectively using spell-casting monsters in their game.

By R. Nelson Bailey

Spell-casting and spell-like abilities grant monsters in Advanced Dungeons & Dragons (AD&D) a significant advantage over those without such powers. However, these powers are only as effective as the Dungeon Master’s (DM) ability to employ them properly. In practice, many such abilities go unused. There is a natural tendency to expend a monster’s most powerful damage-causing spells first and then resort to physical attacks. Throw the fireball and stand back, you might say. While not inherently flawed, this approach often fails to exploit the creature’s full capabilities. The effective use of such creatures depends less on damage than on control.

These abilities range from offensive powers, such as unleashing fireballs, to defensive capabilities like blink, as well as mobility spells such as levitate or teleport. Spells such as detect invisibility further expand a monster’s tactical awareness. Given the vast number of spells and powers in the game, the possible combinations available to a monster are nigh limitless. Each type of monster offers the DM a collection of spell powers to use in an encounter.

This article aims to demonstrate an effective strategy for using spell-capable monsters in AD&D combat. Following this flexible set of basic tactics allows these monsters to use their powers to the fullest and survive more than just a couple of rounds of combat. When used correctly, players will rightly come to fear encounters with these monsters.

Three Tactics of a Whole Strategy

Each combat situation presents unique conditions—terrain, lighting, distance, and location. As these variables are innumerable, no single approach applies in all cases. However, several fundamental tactics consistently improve the combat effectiveness of monsters and spell-users.

1. Move Out of Harm’s Way

A maxim valid in all editions of Dungeons & Dragons: a group concentrating its attacks on a single opponent will almost always prevail. Too often, a lone monster or a small group wades blindly into its opponents, relying on brute force to carry the fight. For creatures with spell powers, this is a gross underuse of their abilities. With no tactics, they simply swing at the party—and in most cases, the party prevails. The encounter is over almost as soon as it begins.

A more effective approach is to move the monster out of the fight, at least temporarily. Whether alone or in a group, its first priority is to avoid being attacked by multiple opponents at once. This is critical, as a hostile, well-armed group of player characters can overwhelm any individual monster or those in small groups. The monster’s first action should always be to move out of melee range immediately. If it can fly, levitate (either naturally or magically), or teleport, it should do so instead, if the environment permits. For example, when encountering potential enemies, a couatl—a winged creature—should first fly out of reach of attackers’ weapons.

If a monster does not possess any of these modes of movement, it should seek to move to an area that limits the number of opponents that can attack it at once. These include higher ground, such as a ledge or a narrow opening. The location and layout of the terrain of the encounter dictate where the monster can move. In some cases, it might have no such place to retreat to.

Once out of immediate danger, the monster should employ defensive and utility spells before engaging its enemies. For example, it might cast shield to improve its Armor Class against missile attacks, or use protection from evil, detect magic, or invisibility to gain tactical advantages.

2. Reduce Opponents’ Effectiveness

The next step is to reduce the effectiveness of its opponents. While offensive spells are useful, a more effective tactic is to reduce the number of opponents able to act. Intelligent monsters recognize which character classes pose the greatest threat; for example, a lich would likely target clerics to prevent turning attempts.

Reducing the number of active opponents depends on the monster’s available abilities. Charm effects can remove individuals from combat. A correctly worded suggestion can compel a character to withdraw from the area. Spells such as slow, confusion, or stinking cloud can incapacitate or hinder groups. Wall spells can physically divide opponents, preventing coordinated action. Spells such as obscurement, darkness 15’ radius, cause blindness, or light (cast directly into an opponent's eyes) also prove effective.

3. Engage With Fewer Opponents

Once several opponents have been neutralized or isolated, the monster can concentrate its offensive abilities or physical attacks on the remaining threats. In this way, it reduces the risk of being overwhelmed. Now the monster engages only one or a few opponents at a time, thereby increasing its chances of victory.

To summarize, the three points of an effective strategy are:

1. Move the monster away from concentrated attacks

2. Separate or incapacitate opponents

3. Engage only a reduced number of enemies

The example below illustrates this principle in action. Note that this example does not account for player decisions or any tactical conditions for the areas’ terrain, which would naturally influence the monster’s tactics. This is also not necessarily the only or the best method for this monster to deal with a hostile group, only that it is an effective one.

---

Example: Bone Devil

A group of six adventurers—two fighters, two clerics, a magic-user, and a thief—encounters a bone devil in a 40' × 40' dungeon chamber.

All devils possess a wide array of spell-like abilities. Any creature with such abilities instinctively knows how to use them effectively, just as animals instinctively use their natural traits. Bone devils have the following spell-like powers at their disposal, each usable one per round, at will:

animate dead

charm person

detect invisibility

fear (as the 4^th-level magic-user spell)

fly

create an illusion

invisibility

know alignment

suggestion

teleport without error

wall of ice (once per day)

summon a bone devil (40% chance of success)

In this encounter, the bone devil’s first action is to prevent a coordinated assault. It has several options: teleportation, invisibility, illusion, or conjuring a wall of ice. The devil chooses to cast a wall of ice, placing it between itself and the party while leaving a gap—perhaps 5'—through which to observe them while flying, breaking the line of attack while maintaining visibility. This way, the party cannot immediately rush up and attack it or target it with spells.

While the party deals with the barrier, the devil enhances its defenses. It takes to the air using its fly ability to increase its mobility, then employs detect invisibility. If time permits, it attempts to summon one or two additional bone devils to assist it.

Having secured its position, the devil begins to divide the party. It flies to the top of the wall, unleashes a blast of fear at the party, and possibly uses an illusion to create a second barrier that splits the group. From this vantage point, it repeatedly uses charm person, suggestion, and additional fear blasts to remove more party members from the battle.

Only after isolating its enemies does the devil descend to engage, attacking with its bone hook while continuing to emit fear in a 5' radius, forcing opponents to save or flee in terror. By this stage, the devil should have significantly reduced the number of opponents capable of threatening it.

Conclusion

In the end, the effective use of spell-capable monsters lies not in the raw power of their abilities, but in how those abilities are applied. Keeping the three tactics—move, separate (or incapacitate), and engage—in mind allows a monster to control the battlefield, limit its enemies’ actions, and choose when to strike. Used this way, such creatures become far more dangerous than those that mindlessly trade blows. When run with purpose and intelligence, they cease to be pushovers and become encounters the players must respect—and fear.

---

DD6 Lords of Shadow

$17.99

Buy Now